Geographies for play in austere times

Abstract

This concluding essay to a collection of 10 papers examining, Best of times to worst of times? Appraising the changing landscape of play in the UK, reviews six key themes that emerge – re-fuelling longstanding tensions within playwork; organisational legacy of the investment years; broad acceptance of the wider value of play in society; the need to develop a critical play intelligence within the sector; the reconfiguration of play geographies and the impact of play provision on local play cultures; and the need for a much more central focus on play cultures in our enquiry. Without question, Austerity has undermined the public investment in play and play services that characterised the UK in early years of the Millennium. Nevertheless, for every ‘threat’ that this poses, others are able and willing to conceptualise this as an opportunity to reprioritise play priorities. It is argued that play is resilient, and adept an adapting to the changing realities of the financial landscape.

Keywords:

• play
• geographies of play
• austerity
• play provision

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

John McKendrick has been a member of the Board of Directors of Play Scotland since 2007. He is also a human geographer based at Glasgow Caledonian University and Workshop Convenor of the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (hereafter, GCYFRG). He has edited three collections of papers on children and children's play in the UK (Playgrounds in the Built Environment, Built Environment, 1999; First Steps: An Introduction to the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families, 2004; and Space for Playwork in Times of Austerity, Journal of Playwork Practice, 2014), He has also completed a series of research projects for Play Scotland, and addressed conferences and seminars for Play England, Play Scotland, PlayBoard NI, and many regional play bodies in the UK.

Peter Kraftl is a Professor of Human Geography at the University of Birmingham. He was a founding member of the GCYFRG, and Chair between 2012-2015. He is an editor of the journals Children’s Geographies and Area. He is the author of Geographies of Alternative Education (2013, Policy Press), and co-editor of Critical Geographies of Childhood and Youth (Policy Press, 2012), Informal Education, Childhood and Youth (Palgrave, 2014) and Children's Emotions in Policy and Practice (Palgrave, 2015). He is the author of over 60 journal articles and book chapters on childhood and education.

Sarah Mills is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Loughborough University and Chair of GCYFRG. Her interests are in the complex geographies, spaces and subjectivities of youth citizenship and her research has explored uniformed youth organisations in the UK. Along with Peter Kraftl, she is the co-editor of Informal Education, Childhood & Youth: Geographies, Histories, Practices (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Stefanie Gregorius is a postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of International Public Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and a GCYFRG Committee Member. She completed her doctoral studies on the transitions to adulthood of youth with disabilities in Accra, Ghana and her research interests include youth and disability studies, international development, and participatory research.

Grace Sykes is a GCYFRG Committee Member, doctoral research student and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Leicester. Her research interests include; children and young people; spaces of education (both formal and informal); and creative participatory methods.